Grrr!

I’ve known for a while that although G-mail was talking to Outlook, Outlook was only talking to G-mail when it felt like it. Turns out that, for the last few days, Outlook was telling me it had sent my e-mails when it hadn’t. So apologies if you were expecting an e-mail from me and haven’t had one. It seems to be working again since I reset it all – although for a while I was getting 4 copies of everything.

My second Grr is human based – we have just waited in all day for a delivery we were promised would arrive today – and it hasn’t. Familiar story, I know, but irritating none the less. And as it’s a five barred gate its not the sort of thing they can leave in the porch.

So now we have to phone and ask why, if on Wednesday they told Wensleydale to his face it would be delivered today – it wasn’t. And when are they going to deliver it?

  Ah, well – back to the shells.This one isn’t really gold inside, but it looks as if it ought to be.

No embroidery today, but I have made a duvet cover and pillow case for Babybel. I gave up making adult sized bedding a long time ago – my boredom threshold is too short for those long straight seams – but cot-sized is tolerable, and I had a piece of pretty flowered cotton that was just the right size. No photo, I’m afraid, because they are in the wash, as the fabric had been sitting in my stash for – mmm – a year or two …

I have not had a good two days!

Several minor hassles on Monday – nothing major but all irritating.

Today we had a Tuesday trip to Guildford. Cheese Major and Cheese Minor were born there and we go back quite often – not to visit the ‘re-purposed’ workhouse in which they were born, but because it is the best shopping centre around.

On the programme today was:
1. lunch at Loch Fyne:
2. a visit to the Wey Valley Embroiderers’ exhibition in the Guildford House Gallery and
3. shopping in Lush and Waterstones.

Between 1 & 2 I went to the bank to get some cash – but the ATM told me it was an ‘Unauthorised Transaction'. As we were in the bank I queried it – and was directed to their phone to call the call centre to find out what was happening.

Well – any call to a call centre is going to be a long process. [At least the bank were paying for it.] Wensleydale sensibly found himself a chair. This call centre is in the UK – in Bootle, for a guess from the accents – but I still got the soothing music and was redirected round umpteen different recorded messages and three real people.

It turns out that someone in the US had tried to get 51p [i.e. $1] out of my account. The bank had detected that it was fraudulent and frozen the account. I am grateful that they did but now I have to wait until they send me a new card. And I can’t get a mini statement from the ATM to check on any other withdrawals.

After that I couldn’t really concentrate on the embroideries – and we only had time for a quick visit to Lush.

However, thinking about life, the universe and hassles on the drive home – I decided to rethink the lampshade. I am really really really not happy with it, and rather than continue and wreck a £50 lamp – I have decided that I will ask – no, tell - the teacher on Thursday that I am moving to plan C.

[This is a family joke: Plan A is what you start with and Plan B is thinking up Plan C.]

So – what will I make instead? Well – if it is acceptable as a 3D functional item – a book. Bet you are surprised!

When I got home I tipped the bits of ‘leaf litter’ I have made out on some painted silk – and liked what I saw much more than the lampshade. With some hand embroidery and beads I think this will make a good cover. I thought I would make a stick binding with a donation from the birch tree in the back garden. So a minor hassle prompted a resolution of a major one.

Keep your fingers crossed that the teacher agrees. If she isn’t happy with a book I will make a box but that will be more work and something I am less comfortable with.